While at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Steindel co-
wrote a research report in which he said a tax surcharge on the
wealthy would help offset lower revenue during an economic
slowdown. Bloomberg News published an article on the study
yesterday.

Today, speaking to the Senate Budget Committee in Trenton,
Steindel, 60, said New Jersey doesn’t need such a tax increase.
He said he didn’t recommend the surcharge while at the New York
Fed and only mentioned it in the report as an option. He joined
the Christie administration in November 2010, four months after
the report.

“We are fortunately not in that position now and revenue
is increasing,” Steindel said. “There is no evolution in that,
no contradiction in thought.”

As Christie’s chief economist, Steindel has projected the
state’s revenue collections will rise 7.3 percent in the fiscal
year beginning July 1 to fund the governor’s $32.1 billion
budget. David Rosen, chief revenue forecaster for the
nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, today projected
revenue will lag behind those estimates by a combined $537
million for this fiscal year and next.

“Temporarily raising income taxes on high-income
households during a downturn” would have the advantage of
placing “a larger burden on households that are less liquidity-
constrained,” Steindel, wrote in the July 2010 report with
economists Richard Deitz and Andrew Haughwout.

Christie, 49, a first-term Republican, has twice vetoed
measures sponsored by Democrats that would have raised income
taxes on residents earning $1 million or more. He has said any
increase would halt the state’s economic recovery, and that the
10 percent income-tax cut he proposed in January is the key to
bringing jobs back to New Jersey.